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Getting Started Special Interest Group December 2018

There are times to draw the annotations on the design layer and times to draw them in the viewport. In this session, we talked about getting organized in Vectorworks, using classes, the annotation window, the Data Tag tool and IFC data records to your advantage.

Topics Covered:

00:11 We started with an already set-up house file and decided to include interior design drawings for the bathroom. This would present us with the challenge of organizing the design layer and the annotation area of the drawing sheets for both the general project design and the interior design. We already had a drawing sheet with interior elevations of the bathroom, so we added a blow-up plan of the bathroom on the same drawing sheet. Right off, we saw that the interior elevation marker from the design layer was too large for our blow-up. We could use a similar marker that was not tied to the elevations, and turn off the class for the interior elevation marker, or try to scale the interior elevation marker. Next, we had the problem of the too-large text. We decided that we would keep the general plan information on the design layer and put the interior design information in the annotation window of the sheet layer. We experimented with using tags from the new Data Tag tool. The challenge in the past has been that objects in the annotation window are not connected to the model and do not update automatically when the design changes. The Data Tag provides a way around that problem.

26:50 We knew that the plumbing fixture data tag was finding the plumbing fixtures, but we didn’t know what information it was looking for. We looked at the Define Tag Field dialogue box in the Tag Layout window and went through steps to change the Data Tag and then the fixture symbol information so that they would show what we wanted. There was some discussion about whether the worksheet needed to be done prior to completing the drawing, or if information could be added or modified at some later point.

34:55 The Data Tag isn’t creating information, it’s just reporting it. All of the data is actually part of the object on the design layer. That way, you only have to change any data once—not on each sheet—but the data can show up in different ways in the various viewports. In addition, you can incorporate information foundation classes (IFC) into your work by using these tags. The Data Tag technology and IFC data records are worth incorporating into your workflow because it is technology that will move forward in the future—IFC information will allow your clients and contractors to look at electronic versions of your work in the future. Putting extra into adding data to IFC records will have real payoffs because governments and industries are moving in that direction.

Getting Started December 2018

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